Personality Tests Can Help Avoid Hiring Mishaps

There is no mistake more costly, in terms of money, effort, and time, than a hiring mistake. It takes just one bad apple to spoil the barrel--and that's especially true for leanly-staffed startups. When you're building a business, every single hire must be the right hire.

For any role at LexION, the first step of the interview process is a test. We do this before a phone screen or any next interview. Our test is an inventory based on the Kiersey test, an adaptation of the classic Myers-Briggs; there are easily over a dozen different options, all geared in a slightly different way. Successful businesses from McKinsey to Gilt Groupe to Makerbot use these objective psychology-based measures to help inform hiring decisions.

When these tests work well, they can create your best team.

Anyone can interview well, but what does that mean? It means they interviewed well. End of story. Interviewing well doesn't actually mean they are a good fit for the job. People with introverted personality types often find interviewing much harder than those wddho are naturally tendency is extroverted so an introvert who is actually be perfect for a certain type of position just may not shine as brightly across an interview room. Conversely, all those gregarious extroverts who are charming and polished in interview? Probably not as well-suited for a role in a quiet back office where their day-to-day will consist of interacting mostly with a computer screen.